Wednesday, December 19, 2012

It is a bittersweet thing indeed that the sporting year of
2012 ends on the death of Páidí Ó Sé. “Legend” is the most overused word in
sports, but Páidí Ó Sé transcended the narrow bounds of that cliché long ago.

Where other men are legends, Páidí was an icon; others on that great Kerry of the 1970s
were more admired and it’s possible Eoin “The Bomber” Liston was more loved,
but nobody represented parish and people, the DNA of the GAA itself, better or
more proudly than Páidí Ó Sé.

His bar in Ventry is a GAA grotto. The greatest cynic of
that particularly Kerry cuteness that Tom Humphries identified as “the Republic
of Yerra” could not help but be swept away by the aura of the place, the rich
sense of the history tucked up against the Atlantic, where so much of the
world’s history and culture was once stored, many hundreds of years ago.

Páidí Ó Sé’s life was short but few lives have been so full.
Suaimhneas síoraí ar a anam Gaelach uasal.

In this year’s iteration of the football championship that
Páidí Ó Sé graced for so long, Mayo lost; they always lose.

In hurling, the crown tottered on Kilkenny’s head as the
All-Ireland final turned into its third and final act, but Henry Shefflin did
nothing less than impose the majesty of his talent on the game. Shefflin moved
to centre-half forward to dominate the game and rescue Kilkenny in their hour
of greatest need of this decade they have dominated. Galway had no answer in
the replay and Kilkenny continue at the very top of the tree.

Donegal were the best team in the football Championship of
course. If you wish to see a team as being a symbiosis of coaching, talent and
tactics, seldom can the three strands have combined as well as they did for
Donegal this year. Donegal swept through the Championship as a burning flame,
and nobody ever really made them sweat. It was a year of sheer dominance by
Donegal from start to finish, like a racehorse winning the Derby from wire to
wire.

Keith Duggan wrote a stirring call to arms for Donegal in
the Irish Times in the week after the final, suggesting that they had it in them to dominate football for
years to come. And it’s possible, but my goodness it’s a big ask. Only two
teams have retained the title in the past twenty-two years, and the intensity
of Donegal this year will surely be hard to replicate in 2013 – not least after
a winter of celebration.

The current All-Ireland odds have Donegal as joint
favourites with Kerry. This is a little surprising as Kerry are meant to be
rebuilding, but then anytime the Championship seems wide open it’s the Usual
Suspect that generally collects it.

Jim Gavin’s new model Dublin could be worth a bet at a best
price 5/1 while it’s hard to know quite what to make of Cork in Championship
terms. The Rebels are undoubted League specialists with their three League
titles in a row and that can never be taken away from them. The League is the
second most important inter-county competition after all.

Mayo are the last of the top five contenders at best price
12/1, shorter than they generally start seasons. After a semi-final in James
Horan’s first year and a final in his second, there are only two places for
Horan to go in his third year, and all Mayo prays it’ll be the good place
rather than the alternative.

Mayo’s series of All-Ireland failures mean that the
Championship for them is now a seventy-minute one, that doesn’t start until
half-three on the third Sunday in September. Everything else is just a
super-long League. It’s neither fair nor just, but that’s how it is.

Rugby has the excitement of a Lions tour next summer, which
always adds a frisson for the home nations in the Championship. It’s hard to
know how Ireland will do; the golden generation is now dead and gone and there
is evidence for a reasonable campaign in the Six Nations and for an abject
disaster. As ever, the first game sets the tone and Ireland’s campaign begins
in Cardiff, where the Welsh are reeling from the effects of a disappointing
summer and a particularly wretched autumn. We’ll wait and see.

2012 was an Olympic year of course, with Katie Taylor’s
victory (and Seán Bán Breathnach’s marvellous commentary) the highlight for
Ireland. Good for Katie but it’s fair to say, now that the dust has died down,
that people got carried away hailing her as the greatest Irish sportswoman ever.
This blog coughs discreetly, and suggests that honour remains with Sonia O’Sullivan.

In soccer, 2012 will be remembered as the year when the
plucky Irish lost their major Championship innocence. After the drama of
Saipan, the glory of America, the incredible, nation-building summers of 1990
and 1988, Ireland’s dream lasted just three minutes, until Mario Mandžukić headed
home the goal that exposed Ireland as a busted flush.

The dream lasted as
long as it takes to boil an egg. Ireland were humiliated and Giovanni
Trapattoni’s reputation left in tatters in a series of nightmare matches. The
best reaction was Liam Brady’s during the Spanish game, when the great man
remarked that the majority of the Irish team had never played against the likes
of the Spanish. They were as baffled by them as a Sunday league pub side would
be.

And in the meantime, the supporters sang on. There was some
vicious reaction back home to the singing, but in truth, what else could they
do? There were people in Mayo jersies out drinking pints after the All-Ireland.
Life goes on, and there’s always next year to dream anew.